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York (HOUSE OF an English royal)

HOUSE OF, an English royal family, rival to that of Lancaster, and possessor of an elder right to the crown.

The first duke of York was EDMUND PLANTAGENET, called also de Langley, fifth son of Edward III. His second son, Richard, Earl of Cambridge, married Anne Mortimer, daughter of Roger, Earl of March, and granddaughter of Lionel, Duke of Clarence, the third son of Edward III. On the line of this king's eldest son becoming extinct in 1399, by the death of Richard II., the issue of Anne Mortimer inherited the true representation of Edward III. The rival house of Lancaster was descended from JOHN OF GAUNT, Duke of Lancaster, and fourth son of Edward III. The house of York furnished three kings to the throne of England: Edward IV., Edward V., and Richard III. The house of Tudor, which supplanted it, was allied to it by the marriage of He marriage of Henry Tudor, afterward Henry VII., with Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Edward IV. In the struggle between the houses of York and Lancaster, the partisans of the former were distinguished by a white and those of the latter by a red rose. Hence the title "War of the Roses."